This invention relates generally to the field of surgery and more particularly to a hand tool capable of performing cutting, clamping, or shearing functions in surgical operations.
In surgery, there is a frequent need to cut, clamp or shear tissues and other materials of small size. A variety of tools have been developed to perform such functions. Prior devices, however, tend to be unnecessarily complex and thus relatively expensive and difficult to clean properly.
Forceps and tweezers typically have a pair of handles interconnected by a pivot or flexible connection at a point along their length, so that squeezing the handles together produces relative jaw movement. The handles usually are substantially rigid, as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,693,246; however, thin-section handles designed to flex when pressure is applied, in order to move the jaws, have been proposed also, as in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,212,305, No. 3.805.792. No. 1.615.125, No. 3,827,277 and No. 2,774.438.
The jaws of tweezers or forceps are usually integral extensions of the handles; however, some prior devices have separate jaws which are closed by withdrawing the jaws or a jaw assembly into a tube or the like. Examples of such devices are found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,592,347 and 4,394,864, and in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,827,277 and 3,774,438, above. The latter two patents are made of plastic, so that they can be thrown away after use.